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Issue 260: Creativity in Design

The seed for the interview with Hanno Sander on page 16 (Circuit Cellar March 2012) was sown at the 2008 Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA. Hanno was at the Parallax booth demonstrating his “Dancebot,” which is a Propeller-based, two-wheeled balancing robot he wrote about in Circuit Cellar 224 (March 2009).

Balancing robot design (Source: Hanno Sander CC260)

Since Circuit Cellar is scheduled to publish Hanno’s book Advanced Control Robotics later this year, it made sense to interview him for our annual Robotics issue. As you’ll learn, Hanno is an enthusiastic designer whose intellect and passion for engineering have enabled him to travel the world and make electronics innovation his life’s work. His story should be an inspiration to everyone who reads this magazine.

After you finish the interview, check out the two robotics-related articles featured in this issue.

Square playing field (Source: Larry Foltzer CC260)

First, on page 20, Larry Foltzer tackles the topic of robot navigation with a fascinating article about position determination and acoustic delay triangulation. Next, turn to the back of the issue for Jeff Bachiochi’s article, “Wheel-Free Mobile Robots” (p. 64). Jeff takes you inside a Freescale FSLBOT mechatronics robot. Study the concepts he covers to prepare yourself for your next mobile robot design.

The rest of the issue includes a variety of articles on creative designs and essential engineering topics. I’m sure you’ll agree that the following articles are just as inspirational as they are informative.

Engineer and video game enthusiast Chris Cantrell explains how he built a Propeller-based TV gaming platform (p. 28). He describes how he hacked a joystick and got the classic Space Invaders video game up and running.

In the February issue, Alexander Pozhitkov introduced the NakedCPU project. This month he wraps up the article series by describing actual experiments and sets the foundation for future research (p. 42).

On page 50, George Novacek helps you prepare for the inevitable: microelectronic component obsolescence. You’ll find his tips invaluable as you move on to new projects.

Interested in the topic of thermal detection? Want to know how IR thermal sensing works? Turn to Richard Wotiz’s article on page 54.

On page 60, columnist George Martin provides his next engineering lesson learned from a real-world project. This month he covers the topic of working with—or without?—printer port connections.

I’d like to wrap up with a note to our staff and long-time readers. This is the 260th issue of Circuit Cellar. That’s quite an achievement! Thank you, colleagues, friends, and readers!

About C. J. Abate

http://circuitcellar.com/editor-letter/creativity-in-design-cc260-march-2012/Circuit CellarCircuit CellarCC260, roboticsThe seed for the interview with Hanno Sander on page 16 (Circuit Cellar March 2012) was sown at the 2008 Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA. Hanno was at the Parallax booth demonstrating his “Dancebot,” which is a Propeller-based, … Continue reading →